10 amazing new video tutorials for better, faster rendering in Lumion 9 (part 1)
Learn helpful tips and tricks to quicken your rendering workflows, and pull the most power out of Lumion for heightening the beauty and effectiveness of your renders.
Whether you’re a new user or you’ve been around since Lumion 1, you can improve your rendering processes with 10 new video tutorials covering everything from importing a 3D model to animating objects. You can look at them as the A to Z of Lumion functionality. New users will be given the complete Lumion walkthrough, and existing users will undoubtedly find some new tips and tricks.
Below, you can find the 10 new tutorials available on our YouTube channel, where there are heaps of other tutorials, beautiful rendered videos and more!
Lesson 1 — Getting Started and Importing a Model
In the first video lesson, you'll learn how to navigate the new, speed-focused interface and instantly import your 3D model from your favorite modeling software.
Lesson 2 — Adding Objects
In Lumion 9 Pro, you can complete your scenes with over 5,000 objects in the content library, including trees, cars, decorations for interiors and exteriors, people and so much more! In Lesson 2, you'll learn about the content library and how it can help you quickly and effectively create full environments and interiors.
Lesson 3 — Applying and Modifying Materials
Beautiful materials have the ability to transform bland 3D models into realistic, stunning buildings and structures. In Lesson 3, you'll learn everything you need to know to effectively, and efficiently, apply and modify Lumion materials.
Lesson 4 — Creating Context
Context is crucial when communicating the intent of your designs. In Lesson 4, you'll learn how you can quickly and effectively create beautiful context around your 3D designs. From urban centers to enthralling forests, you'll be creating jaw-dropping context in no time!
Lesson 5 — Modifying the Weather
To truly capture your 3D project in its best possible light, then you need to know how to effectively modify the weather conditions in Lumion. In Lesson 5, you'll learn how to quickly change the weather in Lumion to get the ideal environment for your design.
To continue with the 10-part Lumion lessons series, including videos tutorials on images, movies, panoramas, lights and animating objects, head over to part 2.
Move, vary and animate: breaking down the ‘Backyard Pool’ video
Learn how to animate objects, switch on layers and alternate between model iterations in a single animation with this video breakdown.
As the architect, you and the client might not always see eye-to-eye for every space in the house’s design. For instance, the client really wants a backyard with a swimming pool, a safety deck for young children, relaxing poolside seating and a lawn, but he/she can’t imagine how it’d all fit!
Fortunately, you’re armed with a great idea — a large, wooden pool deck that, with the help of a motor, can slide and cover the pool.
As an all-in-one tool, Lumion can help you engage your client with a creative, animated render. In minutes, you can animate the wooden deck and truly show the beauty of the backyard when it’s finished, all without third-party software.
In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper look at the ‘Backyard Pool’ video and explore how to thrill clients using features such as Variation Control (Pro only), Layer Visibility and Move.
Setting up the ‘Backyard Pool’ scene
In Lumion 8 Pro, one of the new features was the Variation Control effect. Located in the ‘Scene & Animation’ effects in Movie Mode, Variation Control lets you easily show iterations of a single model or completely different models in the same video.
By using this feature, it’s quick and easy show a client how the addition of the swimming pool and mobile pool deck will impact the look and feel of the backyard.
So, let’s take apart a few elements of this animation and see how it was done.
Import the first model and add variations
The first step is to import one of the model variations. Generally, this will be the model that you’ll show first using Variation Control, though it can also serve as the principal, final design. No matter which model you import first, what’s important is how you set up the Variation Control effect later on.
Import the model as you would do with any other. In the Lumion editor, select the ‘Imports’ category and then simply click on the green button to locate and import the model.
After importing the model, make sure to keep it selected (its node will be blue). This will allow you to import the variation.
To add the ‘variation model’, locate the small dialog box in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This is the variation control box, and it lets you import the building variations and then easily switch between them.
As you can see in the following gif, the only varying factor between the two models is the swimming pool.
Assign Layers
In addition to showing multiple variations of a building or property, it can also help to assign certain objects to a layer and then show the layer at a specific point in the video.
For this animation, we assigned the mobile pool deck and the pool furniture to Layer 5. That way, we can animate the appearance of the swimming pool first with the Variation Control effect, and then have the pool deck and pool furniture show up later with the Layer Visibility effect.
Layer 5 Disabled
Layer 5 Enabled
Now that you have imported your model, imported the variation models and assigned certain objects to a layer, you can go about building the rest of the scene, adding trees and other objects, and then texturing and applying beautiful materials to make your building truly “pop.”
Create the Individual Video Clips
The entire, 26-second animation was created using only four clips. The entire video layout looks as so:
Clip 1
In the first clip, we took three photos in Lumion’s video-maker to animate the camera’s pathway. The camera in this clip circles around the backyard as the swimming pool pops into place.
Clip 2
In clip two, we have an overhead pan showing the wooden cover closing over the pool. To make this clip, we took two photos in Lumion’s video-maker.
Clip 3
For clip three, we figured it was best to show the backyard in its entirety. This way, the client can see what his/her whole backyard will look like with the pool and the sliding pool deck.
Clip 4
Then, to close off the video, we needed a clincher, something for the client to walk away with.
Because of the importance of this last shot, we simply did a pan of the backyard (6 seconds of animation from 2 photo points), giving the client the time needed to fully absorb the swimming pool’s appearance in the backyard.
Inject style and mood with the right concoction of effects
After importing the variation models, placing the pool deck and furniture in a layer and preparing the individual clips of your movie, it’s time to inject life into the scene with the right assortment of effects.
Below, we have a gif of rendered images showing how each effect impacts the look of the backyard scene.
Below, you can find the individual effects and their settings.
Sun
Sun Height: 0.3
Sun Heading: 0.3
Sun Brightness: 0.8
Sun Disk Size: 0.0
Shadow
Sun Shadow Range: 4000m
Coloring: 0
Brightness: 0.2
Interior / Exterior: 0.0
Omnishadow: 3.0
Shadow Correction: 0.0
Shadow Type: Normal
Soft Shadows: On
Fine Detail Shadows: On
Reflection
Edit: Add the reflection planes where relevant
Flicker Reduction: 0.5
Reflection Threshold: 25.0cm
Speedray Reflections: On
Sky Light
Brightness: 2.0
Saturation: 1.0
Sky Light in Planar Reflections: Off
Sky Light in Project Reflections: Off
Render Quality: High
Hyperlight
Amount: 30
Global Illumination
Sun Amount: 0
Falloff Speed: 84.4
Reduce Spots: 1.0
Sun max effect distance: 30.0m
Preview Spotlight GI and Shadows: Off
Chromatic Aberrations
Dispersion: 0.02
Affected Area: 0
Safe Shadows: 0
Sky and Clouds
Position: 0.3
Cloud Speed: 0
Master Cloud Amount: 0.7
Low Clouds: 0
High Clouds: 0
Cloud Direction: 0
Cloud Brightness: 0.2
Cloud Softness: 0.4
Low Cloud Softness Removal: 0.8
Sky Brightness: 0.6
Cloud Preset: 1.0
Cloud High Preset: 0.3
Overall Brightness: 1.3
Color Correction
Temperature: 0.7
Tint: 0.3
Vibrance: 0.4
Brightness: 0.5
Contrast: 0.6
Saturation: 1.0
Gamma Correction: 1.1
Limit Low: 0
Limit High: 1.0
Analog Color Lab
Style: 0.9
Amount: 0.6
Selective Saturation
Color selection: 0.3
Range: 1.0
Saturation: 0.3
Darkness: 0.5
Residual Color Desaturation: 0.0
Depth of Field
Amount: 100.7
Foreground/Background: 0
Focus distance: 3.6m
Sharp area size: 0
Auto Focus: Off
Exposure
Exposure: 0.5
Sharpen
Intensity: 0.4
Vignette
Vignette Amount: 0.1
Vignette Softness: 0.8
Wind
Foliage Wind Strength: 0.4
Applying Layer Visibility, Variation Control and Move
In addition to applying ‘image quality effects’, we need to add the ‘animation effects’ to show the appearance of the swimming pool and the closing pool deck.
For instance, in Clip 1, we used the Variation Control and Layer Visibility effects, while in Clip 2 and 3, however, we needed to animate the sliding pool deck using the Move effect. Below, you’ll find out how we applied these three animation effects to the individual clips.
Clip 1
As mentioned earlier, the goal of Clip 1 was to introduce the client to their current backyard and show a variation with the pool. Using keyframes and the Variation Control effect, the model with the pool was able to appear at a specified moment.
Here’s how we did it:
1. Create the first keyframe at zero seconds and set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the model without the pool.
2. Create the second keyframe to indicate a variation switch. Set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the same number (as the model without the pool) or a blank variation.
3. Create the third keyframe and set the ‘Current variation’ slider to the model with the swimming pool.
*Note: The actual switch happens at the center point between the keyframes. If you don’t add the second keyframe, the switch will occur halfway between the first and the third keyframes.
The next step is to get the pool cover and pool furniture to appear with the Layer Visibility effect from the ‘Scene and Animation’ effects in Movie Mode.
Using keyframes, like with the Variation Control effect, you can make the layer appear at the right moment. Here’s how we did it:
1. Set the first keyframe to indicate the layers you want to show before the appearance of Layer 5.
2. Set the second keyframe to designate the appearance of Layer 5.
Clip 2 and Clip 3
For Clip 2, we no longer need the Variation Control effect or the Layer Visibility effect. Therefore, for these clips, you can simply disable them from your effect stack.
To get the effect of the moving pool cover without post-processing or having to use third-party software, you can use the Move effect in the ‘Scene and Animation’ effects in Movie Mode.
Here’s how we did it:
1. Click on “Edit” to select the items you want to animate at the start of the clip. With the ‘Move’ effect, you can only select one item at a time.
2. You can animate the position, height, rotation, scale and pitch of the selected item. With the object selected, move it to its starting position.
3. Select the ‘End Position’ triangle to confirm the ending point of the animated object.
4. Repeat with every object you want animated. You will see black lines indicating the movement of the objects.
Create movement and pull viewers into your designs
By using the right effects, from the Move effect to Layer Visibility and Variation Control, you can create a dynamic, exciting animation that’s assured to pull your client into the spaces you’ve designed.
